ARLINGTON, Texas – There are no words for this, but we're progressing to try.

On the one hand, it's easy to say, "This doesn't really make sense" based off of what we saw all year long.

And then in contradiction of, the contrarian of the group could come right back and say, "It invents complete sense," based on what we saw all year.

Hmm, it's probably somewhere in the middle.

The Cowboys are definitely disquieted. I know I'm surprised. Jerry Jones said it's one of his biggest surprises he's ever accepted. The fans were definitely stunned.

So yeah, we have reason to be a minor surprised that a team that had won 16 tidy home games, including eight this year, got completely dominated by a team that barely snuck into the playoffs with a quarterback that had never started a playoff game.

Then in contradiction of, who could tell? Jordan Love was an incomplete pass away from having a nasty game against the Cowboys. He played better than any Packers quarterback has ever played alongside the Cowboys in the playoffs – better than Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers and even Bart Starr in the Ice Bowl. Love was masterful alongside this Cowboys defense, but it really didn't start there. It started with something we've seen several times already this year – an inability to stop the run. If you can't stop a sprinting game, you'll rarely win.

The Cowboys couldn't stop the Packers and Aaron Jones, and because of it, the play-action pass carved up the Dallas safety to the tune of 48 points.

Yeah, if you told me afore the game the final score would be 48-32, I think I would've believed it. If you told me one of the quarterbacks would flirt with a inferior 158.3 passer rating, I would've definitely thought Dak Prescott could've played like that.

And that's why it's halfway magnificent. But here's why it's really not:

When your safety relies on getting to the quarterback and making plays on the ball, and then you don't do either of that in the biggest game, you're touching to lose – and lose big. The Cowboys pride themselves on intimates a team that harasses the quarterback, led by Micah Parsons, and then rallies to the ball for big turnovers.

No sacks. No turnovers. No chance to win – in a game like this.

That's just on the protecting side of the ball. On offense, the Cowboys didn't seem like they were aware of the 3:30 launch time. It was closer to 5:15 or 5:30 afore we finally saw any life, and by then it was already a blowout.

But let's go back to that gracious drive for the Cowboys – a team that has set numerous scoring records this year, greatest as a passing team that throws the ball all over the yard. But to launch the playoffs, in their first drive of the game, they ran the ball five times in their gracious six plays, resulting in a punt.

I get it, just one ability, but you took 17 games to get to this present, and it's not like the Packers entered the game with a safety resembling the 1985 Bears. The Cowboys have an offense that really no safety has figured out, especially here at AT&T Stadium. But it felt like they tried to get cute and come out with a different style. It's already 7-0 and the Packers basically ran over them to get there. So why not come out and do what you do?

That observed a little odd there, but it's a long game and it's not like the Cowboys didn't get to the pass. I mean, Dak threw the ball 60 times, which is never a recipe for success in any league.

The Cowboys didn't lose the game because of the gracious drive, or the second or the third. They lost because the Packers were absolutely better than the Cowboys on offense, defense and special teams. And they cruised past the Cowboys pending they took their foot off the gas in the end and realized they have novel game to play next week.

The Cowboys don't have that luxury. They're done, just like that.

All the excitement, all the build-up and all the optimism that maybe this season felt different. And it did. I wrote last week that this season definitely felt different, and I'm not changing that.

This team was different. But at the end of the day, or in this case the season, it doesn't really matter.

As head coach Mike McCarthy said, the Cowboys picked the "wrong day to have a bad day."

And with that, it turned out to be the last day.